


Just My Luck

by Bony__Fingers__Typing



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Comedy, Eventual Fluff, F/M, Feel-good, Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Funny, Heartwarming, Identity Reveal, Multi, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Secret Identity Fail, Shipping, Shippy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 14:00:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6197809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bony__Fingers__Typing/pseuds/Bony__Fingers__Typing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's April in Paris, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste are in their second year of high school. Still cluelessly fighting crime together as famous duo Ladybug and Chat Noir, not much has changed since a year ago... until now. A series of unfortunately-timed Akuma attacks might just turn everything around for the unsuspecting duo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just My Luck

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, and welcome to my first fanfic! I hope you enjoy!

It was a lovely April day in Paris, France. Almost uncharacteristically so, even. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and with temperatures as high as 19 Celsius in some areas, it wasn’t hard to believe that the afternoon air was alive with the elated chatter of high school students, their minds unanimously trained on one thing: upcoming school dances.

The door to the bakery flew open as Marinette rushed towards the stairs, her phone already in her hand, dialing up Alya’s number before she could even stutter out an “oh, mum hi, heading… room now… call Alya-”

“Oh Marinette,” Mrs. Cheng turned to look over her shoulder at her daughter, her hands occupied with a tray of Beignets de Pain, fresh out of the oven, “remember to study for your science qui-”

“Y-yeah mom I’ll take care of it!” the energetic teen called to her mother without even looking back, phone pressed eagerly to her ear. Turning to meet her husband’s eyes, Mrs. Cheng smiled, shaking her head as vague sounds of her daughter squealing from her room could just be heard over the sounds of the bakery. Mr. Dupain smiled and gave a shrug. Would that girl ever realize that, even from the bakery, their home’s walls weren’t entirely sound-proof?

§ § §

“But Alya, which one am I going to wear?” Marinette put the call on speakerphone, and began pacing back and forth in her small loft bedroom. Three dresses, each a different style from the others, were pinned onto mannequins in Marinette’s room. Though each dress had it’s own unique features and accessories, there were four common traits among them; they were all made of a soft, cream-coloured fabric, bestrewn with patches of rich browns and warm greys; they each had a long, fluffy tail hanging down from the back of the skirt, their colours matching those of the rest of the dress; each of them had been made by the dark-haired seamstress herself, only a week prior to this very phone call; and each of them was giving her as much anxiety as the last.

“Girl, I told you, you shouldn’t have decided on such a hard theme to dress for! The other class reps must have had some simpler ideas!” 

“I realize that, but none of the other ideas related to animals at all! NONE of them! You’d think for an animal shelter fundraiser, it would kinda be a must!”

Alya sighed. In her own bedroom, Marinette’s copper-haired friend was idly adjusting the brilliantly pink feathers of her own costume. It had been the same thing for weeks, her hopelessly distraught friend fretting over every little detail of this dance, from the decorations to the playlists, to the countless costume sketches. And she didn’t expect her panic to end until they finally walked into that gymnasium on Friday evening. By then, though, she she knew that they would have an entirely new problem on their hands. The thought made a smile creep its way across her face.

“Well, if you’re really having that hard a time deciding on your costume,” Marinette heard her friend pipe up, “then maybe you should ask Adrien which one he likes best.”

“Wh-what?” The thought made Marinette feel faint. She knew that Adrien liked her designs, but getting him to help choose which one to wear… She could feel herself blushing, and, despite knowing that she was the only one in her room aside from a sleeping Tiki, was embarrassed nonetheless. “Alya, I’m still not even sure if I’ll be able to ask him for a dance…” Marinette sighed and fell back onto her bed. Sure, Adrien wasn’t already going with anyone, not even Chloe (despite her best efforts), but would he even want to dance at all? Let alone with her? Marinette’s racing mind was interrupted by Alya’s voice on the other end of the line.

“I’m going to be at your door in 15 minutes. No, 10. Make sure you’re already in the first dress by the time I’m there.”

“H-huh? Aly-” Her question was interrupted by her phone making a short beeping noise, signaling the end of their call. Marinette knew that her friend was probably already out the door by then, and took a deep breath, getting up and taking the cardigan off of the first mannequin.

§ § §

“Thanks dad, I’ll let you know when we're on the way home,” Nino smiled as he closed the car door and started to walk towards the costume shop. His outfit for the dance was already finished, but he had promised Adrien that he’d meet up with him there and help him get ready, since this was practically the first time he had ever gotten the chance to actually choose his own clothes for any sort of event. Of course, his dad was still making him shop at a needlessly high-end store with ridiculously priced clothes and custom tailoring available, but for Gabriel Agreste, it was the equivalent of letting his son take the limo out for a spin.

As Nino walked through the door, a tiny bell rang, alerting the staff to his entrance. Looking around, he suddenly felt as though even the store walls were better dressed than he was. The whole place looked so fancy, from the red curtains to the gold-coloured clothing racks, right down to the chairs outside of the dressing rooms, all of it terribly expensive. With a chuckle to himself, Nino realized that he wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

“Oh, hey Nino!” He heard from the far end of the shop. Turning, he could see Adrien’s head poking out from behind a rack hung with colourful blazers. Nino smiled, and began walking over to meet his friend.

“Hey! Hope I didn’t make you wait too long. Dad had to run into work real quick before he dropped me off.”

“Oh, not at all. I’ve only been here for, like, five minutes.” Adrien gave a lax shrug and continued browsing through the suit jackets. A chair only a few paces away already had a handful of items draped across the arm, notably a pair of green dress pants and a headband with… antennae on it? Nino assumed these were Adrien’s.

“So, what exactly are you looking for here?” Nino began idly passing through the coats, not actually looking any of them over. He was still feeling fairly awkward about the sheer lavish nature of the shop, like every breath he took would cost him more money than he was carrying.

“Aha!” Adrien exclaimed, pulling a green blazer with a strangely long tail off the rack. He turned to the changing rooms and casually replied, “Why don’t I just try it on, and you can tell me what you think?”

“Sure,” Nino replied as he slowly made his way over to the nearest chair and took a seat. Adrien set his items down and pulled the curtain shut. A silence hung over the two for a moment, before Nino interjected, “So… not taking anyone to the dance, huh?” There was another pause before Adrien replied.

“Not planning on it. Why do you ask?”

Nino froze. Alya had told him everything, about how Marinette was going to try and ask Adrien for a dance, and had convinced him to try and put a good word in to Adrien for her. But what was he going to say?

“Um… Well I…” He stammered. Things weren’t looking so good for him, so he would have to come up with something, and fast. “I… happen to know that there are quite a few girls at our school who’d give anything for a dance with you!” No duh, he thought to himself. Still, it was a start.

“No duh!” Adrien laughed from inside the room. Nino winced.

“What I mean is,” he responded, trying his best to think on his feet, “there are a lot of cute girls who wouldn’t mind a dance with you. I might even have a few names. So what’s got your interest instead?”

As soon as he said it, he heard the changing room curtain draw back, and he turned to look at Adrien. Other than the white dress shirt and shoes, the entire outfit was a limey green. He was wearing the antennae headband, as well as a simple green face mask, and had a green bowtie with a leafy pattern on as well. Upon further inspection, the tail of his coat wasn’t just long, but it had a striped pattern to it, and was shaped in a similar way to a bug’s abdomen. Nino cracked a smile. Suddenly, things all made sense.

“Oh, I see now,” he began, jokingly, “an aphid, huh? Subtle.” Adrien gave his friend a puzzled look, and Nino couldn’t tell if he was trying to act clueless, or if he simply was that clueless. He shook his head. “You’re all hung up over Ladybug, aren’t you?”

“I’m-” Adrien’s eyes widened, and he could feel his face starting to get warm. He didn’t blush easily, but at this rate he was worried he might. “What? No, where would you get that…” He stared at Nino, who stared right back. He wasn’t sure how his friend knew, or maybe it was just dumb luck, but either way, he could see the defiance on his friend’s face, so it looked like the cat was out of the bag now. He smiled to himself. If Ladybug or the press ever found out who he really was, he’d have to make sure to use that one.

“Well?”

“Okay, yeah, you got me,” Adrien snapped in a hushed voice, pulling his friend closer with one arm and looking around as though to keep the conversation between the two of them.

“Man it’s okay,” Nino laughed, “your secret’s safe with me!”

“Yeah, but what does... that have to do with the dance?”

I guess he is just clueless, Nino thought as he saw the look on Adrien’s face. “Oh, you know,” he began, “you’re holding out for her instead of looking for a real girl.”

“What do you mean a ‘real girl’?” Adrien snapped. His friend looked taken aback. He wasn’t judging or trying to harass him, he was just trying to help. Adrien took a deep breath before going on, “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Look, I’m still not taking anybody, but if someone asks me to dance then I might say yes.” Nino beamed, and Adrien looked at his friend with intrigue. “What, you trying to set me up with someone?”

“I, well uh-” he began, but his answer was cut off by Adrien’s laughter.

“C’mon, I’ve got to change out of this stuff,” he took his hand off of Nino’s shoulder, “I’m going to buy it, then we can head to lunch.”

Nino exhaled a long sigh of relief. Well that was a close one.

§ § §

“Hmm… maybe try on the first one again,” Alya suggested, looking dress three up and down once more. Marinette groaned. Bits of lace, random accessories and shed fur covered much of the bedroom floor. They had been doing this for over 20 minutes, changing her in and out of the outfits, none of them really sticking. She grabbed the dress off her bed, picked up a pink macaron with poppy seeds sprinkled on it from the box on her dresser, and began munching away.

“I’m just tired of this, Alya,” She whined, sitting down next to her best friend on the pink chaise lounge and leaning onto the brown throw pillow, “How am I going to choose between them all? I like the skirt on this one the best, but I like the neck on the second one better, but the first one has the cardigan… UGH!” She flopped backwards, staring up at her ceiling. “I just know that if I can’t make this decision, I’ll never be able to make my mind up for what I’m going to say to Adrien! Why is this so haaaaard?” Sadly, the seamstress stuffed the rest of the macaron into her mouth, then put her hands over her face.

Alya looked down at her friend, smiled, then grabbed two more macarons out of the box and comfortably fell onto the chaise, handing her friend one of the confections. “Girl, you’re seriously over thinking things!”

Marinette peaked out through her fingers, grabbed the sweet, and sighed. “I know, I know, it’s just hard for me not to! I’m trying to put as much effort into every part of this dance that I can… I just feel like I don’t have the time to focus on one thing without worrying about all the others!” She took a tentative bite out of the macaron.

“Well, maybe you just need to step back and take a look at the bigger picture!” she gestured with her hands, “Seriously think about it. If you like a different part of each dress…”

After a few moments, Marinette sprang up, beaming. Alya sat up too. Finally. Flinging herself off the chaise and grabbing her sketch book, the seamstress tore out the old drawings of the dresses, and began sketching once more. She was already in “the zone,” as her friend often called it. “Alya,” she began, her face and voice already brimming with determination, “I’m going to need you to stick around for a while.”

“Lucky for you, I wasn't planning on going anywhere, anyway.” She laughed. Gaze scanning the room, her eyes finally fell on the cat-eared headband-of Marinette’s own design, of course. Alya stood, picked it up off the floor, and placed it on Marinette’s head.

**Author's Note:**

> Did you like the story? Let me know in the comments!
> 
> New chapter will be up soon, hopefully by Friday. I'll try sticking to a 2-chapter-per-week schedule, but my laptop kayboard is broken, so it takes a long time to type. Sorry for any inconvenience.
> 
> Thanks again, each of you who read, commented on and gave kudos to my story!


End file.
